Apple was a celebrated journalist, gourmand, and author of the guidebooks Apple's Europe (1986) and Apple's America (2005).

Apple worked as a political correspondent and editor of the The New York Times for over 40 years. He was the paper’s bureau chief in Albany, Lagos, Nairobi, Saigon, Moscow, London and Washington. In addition to his home in Georgetown, he owned a farm near Gettysburg, PA and an English cottage in the Cotswolds. He lived at this address from 1985 until his death.